At the end of the 19th century, contemplating the growing social unrest linked to the devastating lack of employment in England, the influential newspaper
The Times
worriedly expressed that unemployment constituted “the fundamental problem of modern society.”
A few years later, in 1895, the British House of Commons established a Committee to scrutinize “Distress from
Want of Employment
. ”
This historical milestone culminated in the first official investigation with the objective of thoroughly analyzing the situation, the causes and the formulation of proposals regarding a social phenomenon such as unemployment, whose implications had a profound impact on the life and health of a large part of the population. population.
From the 19th century industrial revolution to the struggles for labor rights in subsequent centuries, employment conditions have shaped not only the social and economic structure of countries, but continue to leave a deep mark on the health and well-being of workers and workers. workers from all over the world.
For this reason, in April 2022, the second vice president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy of the Spanish Government established a Commission with the purpose of obtaining a detailed diagnosis of two of the most worrying social evils of our time: job insecurity and social disorders. mental health.
The culmination of this initiative materialized in March 2023 with the presentation of the PRESME Report, the first research sponsored by a government that comprehensively relates both phenomena.
The study addresses fundamental issues such as the definition of job insecurity, methods for measuring it, its impact on mental health, as well as strategies to mitigate both precariousness and its effects on health.
This report will soon be published in book form.
Although job insecurity has commonly been associated with temporary contracts, job insecurity or low income, a thorough and exhaustive scientific analysis reveals its multifaceted and multidimensional nature.
These factors go beyond the economic and include psychosocial aspects, such as being subject to intense work rhythms and the imperative need to be permanently available, as well as unstable and insecure working conditions that generate high vulnerability and a latent fear of dismissal.
They also include everything from the lack of protection and labor rights to the weakness in negotiation capacity and the effective exercise of these rights, including the perception of insufficient remuneration.
Experiencing precariousness can translate into having intermittent employment, being underemployed (with an unwanted part-time contract or performing functions below your educational level), working in “submerged” jobs, and even having multiple occupations that barely cover the monthly expenses.
Although the recent increases in the minimum wage have benefited more than two million people, there still remains a significant contingent of workers who barely exceed the range of one thousand euros per month.
However, the shadow of job insecurity today extends not only over salaried employment, even that with a high level of stability, but also over numerous non-salaried and informal occupations.
Despite its omnipresence, today much of job insecurity remains hidden.
We do not understand it well enough, we do not measure it adequately and, therefore, we fail to evaluate it or make correct political decisions.
Along with numerous jobs whose harmful effects on health and life we can understand, there are many others whose toxic nature we barely know.
This is the case of various types of informal employment, submerged work or work performed in exchange for accommodation and/or maintenance, in situations that border on servitude and slavery, common in impoverished nations and increasingly common in rich countries.
In addition to these jobs, there remains a type of essential daily work that is largely ignored at a social level, the consequences of which are almost always suffered in silence.
We are referring to the intense and essential reproductive work (domestic and care work) that so many women carry out within the family, deprived of wages and labor rights.
It is not surprising that, as Silvia Federici has pointed out, “the assembly line begins in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in our own bodies,” and that women's work and bodies are the “new commons,” the essential that the community needs to survive.
Currently, the insufficient data available reveal that almost half of the active population in Spain, equivalent to eleven and a half million people, show symptoms of being mired in precariousness.
Different scientific studies, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO), highlight that job insecurity operates as a determinant that increases the risk of suffering from multiple diseases and dying prematurely.
The PRESME Report has provided scientific evidence that demonstrates how job insecurity acts as a harmful determinant for health, a social scourge that encourages alcohol and drug consumption, as well as an increased risk of suicide.
The economics of digital platforms illustrate this disturbing reality in a revealing way.
Those who work in this sector are under the constant threat of a highly flexible labor market, subject to low salaries, constant but invisible discipline, and lack of control over their own time.
Although they enjoy legal freedom, they are forced to internalize a work situation that subjugates and alienates.
But what else do we know about the link between job insecurity and mental health problems?
In Spain, a high prevalence of mental disorders is observed, a highly medicalized phenomenon, since we are among the countries in the world with the highest consumption of anxiolytics and antidepressants.
Discomfort, psychological distress or constant dependence on medications to cope with the workday are responses that have become normalized today in large sectors of the population, creating a reality in which many people often feel guilty for their own suffering. , unrelated to the structural causes of precariousness that often drives work “presenteeism”, that is, attendance at work even when sick.
However, since psychological suffering is not only an individual but a collective issue, its resolution requires a social and political approach.
The need to address the systemic roots of job insecurity and its effects on mental health implies, for example, the promotion of structural reforms such as the democratization of the workplace.
Scientific research has shown that the impact on mental health is more than 2.5 times more common among those working in precarious conditions, worsening as job insecurity intensifies.
This reality most severely affects women, young people, working class people, migrants and frequently forgotten groups, such as the self-employed, trans people and people with functional diversity, as well as certain professions such as journalism and cultural work.
Of the total number of working people in Spain, it is estimated that, during 2020, more than half a million suffered from depression, of which at least a third could have avoided this condition if they had not been subject to precarious employment.
We are talking about more than 170,000 individuals, each with their own life path, aspirations and family environment.
Work should not simply be a mere means of survival or a harmful environment that harms our physical and mental health;
It should be a source of personal fulfillment and well-being.
Avoiding precariousness, providing security for all people and preserving their health should constitute an ethical imperative for all governments.
However, in the era of artificial intelligence and
big data
, current information systems lack the necessary tools to comprehensively analyze and explain such everyday and relevant phenomena as job insecurity and its social and health repercussions.
In 1964, the Active Population Survey (EPA) was carried out for the first time in Spain, whose data allowed unemployment to be measured and was collected quarterly starting in 1975. However, to evaluate the progress and social justice of a country, It is not enough to know the quantity of jobs, but it is also essential to know their quality.
In 1987, an important but insufficient step forward was taken by including for the first time the measurement of temporary employment in the Spanish labor market.
However, as statistician John Tukey rightly pointed out, it is preferable to have a non-exact answer to the correct question than an exact answer to the incorrect question.
Nowadays, the time has come for official statistical services to develop the necessary indicators that allow adequately measuring the magnitude, evolution and multiple effects of job insecurity.
In the year 2024, we have the knowledge necessary to adequately answer the right question.
It is time for society to comprehensively understand and evaluate a fundamental social determinant of our health.
Joan Benach
has a doctorate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University and professor of Sociology at the Pompeu Fabra University.
He coordinated the preparation of the
PRESME
report (
Job insecurity and mental health. Knowledge and policies
), commissioned by the Ministry of Labor.
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